Dehydration products resulting from dehydration of sugars have numerous applications including but not limited to use as emulsifiers in products such as food and cosmetics, and as biodegradable surfactants. Sugar dehydration products can additionally be useful for production of various medication therapeutics and high-property polymers.
Conventional processes for catalytic dehydration of sugars to produce anhydrosugars can often result in production of a colored product. Such reactions can also result in formation of dark colored polymers which are retained on particular catalysts and can result in catalyst fouling and deactivation. Where dark colored product is produced, the product typically must undergo additional processing to decolorize the product prior to use and/or further processing.
It is desirable to develop alternative methods for conducting sugar dehydration reactions for production of anhydrosugars.